Re-scan. Re-scan. Re-scan...

It might behoove the media to redouble their efforts to tell people to re-scan their converter boxes for new channels, even if they did so Friday, when the plug was pulled on analog and some of the digital stations moved from temporary digital channels to differet, permanent ones. (Click here for complete DTV transition coverage.)

Why re-scan if you did yesterday? Because I have anecdotal evedence, including from the single most credible, authoritative, kind and wise source I know of–my mother-in-law–that there was some confusion about re-scanning channels.

Apparently, some stations were saying the transition would be complete by 12 p.m. when they meant midnight. That may have been why the FCC talked about the end of analog being 11:59:59 p.m., which is a lot harder to confuse with noon.

Anyone who re-scanned at, say, 3 p.m. Friday thinking they would be getting all the new channels could have been missing many that had not yet made the switch. And if it was happening in Washington, I can’t help but think others in other markets might have made the same mistake, on either the station or viewer side of the announcement.

Even if the stations got it right and people simply misunderstood it–not my mother-in-law, of course–it would behoove (I love that word) the media and the FCC to make a point of reiterating that the transition was not completed until midnight and anyone who scanned before then should, just to be on the safe side, re-scan this morning. Who knows what new digital wonders might appear.